Her True Love
by onlyoneformeisme
Summary: Maybe Elphinstone was the one. / written for qlfc round 9


**Written for QLFC round 9**

 **Catapults**

 **Keeper:** _Minerva McGonagall_

 ** _Word count will be at end._**

 **AN: Some of it is mostly OOC, I tried to stay close as canon as possibl. Song in section '1984' is** _What's Love Got to Do with It_ **by Tina Turner, a singer from the 1980s.**

* * *

 ** _Hogsmeade, 1982_**

Minerva stared, shocked, at the man who was kneeling before her. He had a ring in his hand as his eyes stared up into hers, pleading with her. "Why?" she whispered so only he could hear. "Why?"

"Because I love you, Minerva. I really do." His eyes continued to stare into hers. "I know you probably don't love me back, not after McGregor's death, but I do love you. I always have."

Her heart gave a pang. McGregor's death had hurt her badly. He had been a Scottish muggle farmer that lived near her family's place, and they had known each other for a long time. He hadn't known her feelings for him, had never known that she had had a crush on him growing up or that she came to love him. She never told him because she thought that that also would have been the end of her life ambitions.

His death hit her hard and she didn't think she would bounce back from it. Even if they hadn't been dating.

She looked back at Elphinstone, looking into his dark blue eyes that shone with his love for her. She looked to his windswept hair that was usually combed and pristine without a hair out of place. She looked down to the ring in his hand, the green gem on it twinkling from the light of the lamppost beside them.

"Minerva?"

She looked back to him, her mind made up. "Yes," she told him in a soft voice. "I'll marry you, Elphinstone Urquart."

His dark blue orbs blinked in surprise before a beautiful, wide grin spread across his face. He placed the ring on her finger as he stood up, cupping her face with his hands gently. "Thank you, Minerva McGonagall," he whispered to her, "for giving me a chance." He placed a gentle kiss on her lips before he pulled away, the grin still on his face.

As he lead her back down the walkway, watching as how he walked with a little skip in his step, she smiled to herself.

Maybe Elphinstone was the one.

* * *

 _ **1983**_

Rolling over in the bed, Minerva faced Elphinstone, studying his peaceful, sleeping face. He looked so at peace there, beside her. He had an arm under his head, half of his face mushed up because of it. His hair fell over his face, landing past his nose, and any breath he blew out of his mouth caused the little pieces of hair to go up and come back down.

She smiled to herself, just watching him sleep.

It had been a year since he had proposed and so far their marriage was going wonderfully. He was a kind man, that she knew from working under him at the ministry, and he was so patient and understanding. He was always waiting for her when she came back from work at Hogwarts and was always ready to hear about her day. The way he would light up when she would talk about something that happened that day made her happy that she made him happy.

She reached a hand out to thumb his cheek softly, smiling as he leaned into it.

As she ran her thumb over his cheek, she thought. How would her life be had she not agreed to marry Elphinstone? Would she still have been grieving over McGegor's death? Would she have never moved on?

She sighed softly before she turned to look back at Elphinstone only to see him staring at her sleepily. "Hello there, love," she whispered to him softly.

"Hello there," he whispered back, smiling at her groggily. "What were you thinking about?"

"Me?"

He nodded.

"I was just thinking what I would have been like had I not agreed to marry you, is all."

"Hm," he replied. "I think you still would have been just as headstrong and stern you always are, Min. I think you would have continued to live life as you would always do. You probably would have found someone to love you, someone who wasn't me."

Minerva stared at him before she pulled himself to her and kissed him on the lips. "I don't think I would have found anyone who would love me as much as you do," she told him when they broke apart. "I think I would have been lost without you."

He placed his head between her neck and her shoulder. She could feel him smiling as he began to nose her neck softly.

"I have to get to work soon," she whispered softly.

"We'll have to hurry then, won't we?"

She smiled and laughed as he flipped her over.

* * *

 ** _1984_**

Minerva hummed as she made dinner, moving to the song that was softly playing from the radio. She cracked an egg and let the yolk fall into the bowl, still slowly dancing, when she heard the door to the small cottage open and close. "Elphinstone?" she called, turning the music down a little.

"Hi, love," her husband said as he entered the kitchen, wrapping her up in his arms. "What are you making?"

"Tonight we'll be having breakfast for dinner. I thought it would be a good change this week, don't you think?"

He laughed, placing a kiss on her lips. "I agree," he told her.

She gave him a smile before she got herself out of his arms and turned back to making dinner. "How was work today?" she asked. "Anything interesting happen?"

"Nothing particularly interesting," he replied, leaning against the counter, watching as she made dinner. He watched as she turned the radio up a little as a song he knew she liked came on. He watched with amusement as she moved along to it, moving her hips and her feet slowly.

He heard her begin to sing, and he closed his eyes as he listened to her sing.

" _You must understand though the touch of your hand_

 _Makes my pulse react_

 _That it's only the thrill of boy meeting girl_

 _Opposites attract_

 _It's physical_

 _Only logical_

 _You must try to ignore that it means more than that ooo_

 _"What's love got to do, go to do with it_

 _What's love but a second hand emotion_

 _What's love got to do, got to do with it_

 _Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken_

 _"It May seem to you that I'm actin confused_

 _When you're close to me_

 _If I tend to look dazed I've read it someplace_

 _I've got cause to be_

 _There's a name for it_

 _There's a phrase that fits_

 _But whatever the reason you do it for me ooo . . . ."_

* * *

 _ **1985**_

She was cleaning the house when they arrived.

The Aurors has come to deliver her some news, and she just knew that something bad had happened.

"–your husband–"

"–died in an accident–"

"–there was nothing anyone could do–"

She wasn't listening. It was like she was underwater and the Aurors' voices were muffled.

It wasn't real. He couldn't be gone.

He _couldn't_.

* * *

She stood before his grave, reading the words that had been engraved on it:

 _Elphinstone Urquart_

 _1935 - 1985_

 _Beloved Son and Husband_

 _May the angels accept you and love you for all the love you have shared with others._

She traced the words, her hand trembling. Then, falling to the ground, she began to cry.

* * *

 _[word count: 1221]_


End file.
